In shutting down Connor McDavid, Sean Couturier served notice that he is indeed back

After an impressive first 30 minutes, the Philadelphia Flyers’ hold on Thursday night’s game against the Edmonton Oilers appeared to be slipping as the second period neared its end.

Their 2-0 lead had been cut in half by the line centered by superstar Connor McDavid, who was finally starting to look dangerous. And when Cam Atkinson took a tripping penalty in the neutral zone with 2:31 left in the period, it seemed obvious what was looming. The Oilers’ power play — which entered the game clicking at a 35.7 percent success rate after scoring on 32.4 percent of their chances last season — would come through, tying the game before intermission and putting Edmonton on track to nab the win most assumed was inevitable.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, Sean Couturier happened.

Frustrated after nearly a minute of fruitless probing of the Philadelphia PK, McDavid tried to slip a quick pass to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins at the top of the left faceoff circle. Couturier wasn’t fooled. But while most players would have simply ripped the puck off the boards and down the ice, so pleased to have forced a turnover out of the great McDavid, Couturier wasn’t done. He glanced to his left, saw new teammate Sean Walker beside him, and led him with a little backhand pass down the ice to let him attack Edmonton in shorthanded transition.

Sean Walker’s first goal with the Flyers comes shorthanded!

pic.twitter.com/7OxwZjjWty

— Nasty Knuckles (@NastyKnuckles) October 20, 2023

One unlikely short-side Walker snipe later, and a potential 2-2 tie had become a 3-1 Flyers edge, and the Oilers were all but buried.

“I was just coming back in the middle, trying to have an active stick. Maybe caught (McDavid) a little off guard,” Couturier said humbly. “Saw Walks taking off, just made a patient play. He did a heck of a shot there.”

The Flyers took apart Edmonton on Thursday night to the tune of a 4-1 final score for a number of reasons. Carter Hart (22 saves on 23 shots) continued his impressive start to the season. Owen Tippett played like the 2022-23 version of himself for the first time in four games. Atkinson scored twice, courtesy of two gorgeous Tippett passes. Travis Sanheim stood out once again as the No. 1 blueliner (27:03 minutes). Bobby Brink had his second straight stellar game.

But at the top of the “why the Flyers won” list, ahead of everyone else, was the center that head coach John Tortorella chose to hard-match against the best hockey player in the world all night long, despite it being only his fourth game back after missing a season and a half.

Sean Couturier.

“He played every shift against him except one, and they scored,” Tortorella noted after the game. “Played every shift. And if I didn’t give him the shift, he’s probably looking over his shoulder at me, wanting to get back out there.”

Couturier, of course, is used to this kind of treatment from his coaches. He’s been the Flyers’ shutdown center of choice dating all the way back to his teenage years, when he frustrated Evgeni Malkin in the 2012 playoffs. But there was no guarantee that the version of Couturier that won the Selke Trophy back in 2020 was going to be the one who hit the ice for the Flyers this season.

He had undergone two back surgeries. He hadn’t played in a regular season NHL game since December of 2021. And he only had a few months left before he turned 31 — an age which usually dovetails with the start of even a healthy NHLer’s decline phase. Maybe Couturier would be able to play this season, but his skating speed would drop from his normal “not that fast” gear to a “way behind the play” level. Maybe the surgeries would sap his strength in puck battles, long a low-key hallmark of his game. Or maybe he wouldn’t be able to stay healthy at all. The uncertainty surrounding Couturier was a big part of why most prognosticators pegged the Flyers to be a bottom-five NHL club entering the season — sure, it was possible Couturier would return at peak powers, but one couldn’t count on it.

It’s certainly looking like Couturier has returned at peak powers.

Couturier put on an absolute clinic against McDavid on Thursday. In 10:40 minutes head-to-head against Couturier at five-on-five, McDavid and the Oilers collected just five shots on goal — none by McDavid himself. They generated just 44.82 percent of the expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick. In a combined four minutes against not-Couturier, however? McDavid helped produce Edmonton’s only goal of the evening, and that wasn’t a coincidence. Couturier may not have been flashy on most of his shifts, but he did what he’s done for over a decade — shut the opponent’s star down.

“I think a lot of the things go unnoticed that he does, but the d-zone’s been spectacular,” Walker raved after the game. “The way he can break up plays, calm things down for us.”

“It builds my confidence knowing that he’s so positionally sound, that I can kind of get lost and do my thing and know that he’s gonna be in the right spot at the right time,” linemate Atkinson added.

The Flyers have now played four regular season games. In those games, Couturier has four points — one goal and three assists. He’s averaging 20:44 minutes per night, which would be his heaviest per-game workload since 2018-19. Per Evolving-Hockey, he’s helped the Flyers to a dominant 72.92 percent expected goal share at even strength when he’s skated. The Flyers have outscored their opponents 3 – 0 at five-on-five with Couturier on the ice. And now, on Thursday, he proved he can still shut down the absolute best that the NHL has to offer.

Yeah, it’s fair to say Sean Couturier is back.

“He’s coming. It just looks like he’s feeling more and more comfortable,” Tortorella said.

So what if Sean Couturier remains the same Selke Trophy contender he was before the back injury put a temporary halt to his hockey career? What does it mean for a Flyers club that in his absence, cleaned house organizationally and embraced a full-fledged rebuild mentality in the process?

Most likely, even with a rejuvenated Couturier, the Flyers aren’t a playoff team — unless a number of other roster players take big, sustainable steps forward as well. The Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference are just too strong and deep. But are they the bottom-five club many thought they would be? Almost certainly not. A healthy and back-in-form Couturier is that valuable.

Some fans might blanch at that possibility. The Flyers finally embrace a rebuild, they lament, and a soon-to-be 31-year old is messing up their chance to get another blue-chip prospect at the top of the draft who can lead — along with Matvei Michkov and Cutter Gauthier — a new generation to the promised land a few seasons down the road.

But Couturier always had six more years left on his contract, with a no-movement clause active for all but the final season. A regularly injured or significantly diminished Couturier would have been an enormous drag on the cap flexibility of that rebuild, assuming that the Flyers had designs on turning the corner sometime during the 2020s. If Couturier is still the player he was pre-injury, however — a really, really good one — suddenly, his $7.75 million cap hit through 2029-30 might not prove to be a bad contract at all.

Don’t forget that when it was signed, Couturier was widely viewed as giving the Flyers a cap hit bargain, particularly in the short-term, while he remained at peak powers. A Selke Trophy-contending 1C, after all, is worth way more in on-ice value than $7.75 million. And that’s exactly the player that the Flyers have gotten through four games in 2023-24.

Yes, Couturier is likely to decline as he moves into the heart of his 30s. But assuming this level of play (and his health) holds, he’ll be declining from a still-very high summit. And with the NHL salary cap ceiling poised to skyrocket over the next few seasons, it’s not difficult at all to envision even a slightly-less effective 34-year old Couturier being on a below-market cap hit, right when the Flyers are aiming to turn the corner into true contention.

Maybe mid-30s Couturier won’t be a cap albatross — he’ll be a cap asset. It’s a scenario that seemed impossible just a few short weeks ago, and now is very much back on the table.

Couturier’s teammates aren’t worried about the future, though. They’re focused squarely on the present. And they’re ecstatic to have Sean Couturier back, looking like the player he’s always been.

“I played a lot of years against him, so it’s nice to finally be on his side, see that he’s healthy and playing with him five-on-five, power play, PK,” Atkinson said.

“I think everybody’s been super impressed with him, the way he’s come back and battled over those last two years,” Walker added. “He’s a huge addition, obviously, and the guys love having him around.”

Understandably so.

Assorted observations

2. Marc Staal left the game early in the second period after what appeared to be a collision with Edmonton’s Warren Foegele. He was ruled out for the rest of the game with an upper-body injury, and Tortorella had no update on his status after the win.

3. Rasmus Ristolainen remained on IR for Thursday’s game, but he continues to skate with his teammates at practice and with skills coach Angelo Ricci afterwards. If Staal does have to miss more time with his injury, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if Ristolainen simply slides into the spot vacated by Staal. The Flyers were given the day off from practice on Friday, however, so most likely, there won’t be an update on Staal until Saturday, when the team is in Dallas.

4. Brink was one of the Flyers’ most effective forwards on Tuesday, but he wasn’t rewarded with an appearance on the scoresheet. That wasn’t the case Thursday. Brink was just as impressive, but this time, he nabbed a primary assist on a slick give-and-go play with Joel Farabee in the first period.

Over the past two games, Brink has fully replicated his impressive work from the preseason in meaningful games, and looks more than ready to stick as a full-time NHLer.

5. Travis Sanheim led all Flyers defensemen with a 66.7 percent expected goal share at even strength in this one, and that was despite facing McDavid for 8:26 out of his 20:19 total minutes at five-on-five. Sanheim continues to impressive in his role as de facto No. 1 blueliner.

6. That wasn’t a scrub defenseman that Tippett made look foolish on Atkinson’s first goal — it was Evan Bouchard, one of Edmonton’s top young players.

7. Statistically, Carter Hart is off to a stellar start in 2023-24, with a 0.929 save percentage and one shutout. But particularly over the last two games, Hart has benefited from extremely sound defensive play in front of him, which has kept high quality scoring chances to a minimum. It’s a far cry from Hart’s hot start last season, which saw him drag the Flyers to multiple wins almost singlehandedly. This year, he’s getting real help.

8. Morgan Frost was scratched for the second straight game, and given the performance of the club in his absence, it wouldn’t be a shock if he sits once again in Dallas on Saturday.

9. The Flyers have a lot of positives thus far, but one undeniable negative? The power play, which is now a ghastly 1-for-17 (5.9 percent) through four contests.

10. Emil Andrae checked in for Egor Zamula in this one, and while most of his shifts were solid, he was a bit late in terms of coverage recognition on Zach Hyman’s second period tally. One would guess that Zamula — who hasn’t merely outplayed Andrae but most of the Flyers’ veteran defensemen as well — will check back in on Saturday.